Blanking machine vacuum system

ABSTRACT

A fixed upper die member of a blanking press has manifold means and means to exhaust air from said manifold means. Passages extend from the manifold means through the lower face of the upper die member to urge a web which passes below the upper die member into contact therewith. The press is associated with a generally conventional blanking machine having means to step feed a continuous web to the press below the upper die member and above a reciprocable lower die member, a conveyor adjacent the upper die member and means to remove the waste portion of the web. Upper punches conforming to the tops of the cup are fixed with the lower die being moved upwardly beyond them to cut the tops of the cups clear of the web, the said tops being held to the punches by a cup stripper.

,luraselr BLANKHNG MACHINE VACUUM SYSTEM Primary Examiner-Donald R.Schran [75] Inventor: Walter R. Jurasek, Gustine, Calif. Anmey-smlthHardmg Barley & Folhmer [73] Assignee: Avoset Food Corporation, Oakland,[57] ABSTRACT l'f. Cal A fixed upper die member of a blanking press has[22] Filed: Jan. 24, 1972 manifold means and means to exhaust air fromsaid z 1 manifold means. Passages extend from the manifold [21] Appl No220;] means through the lower face of the upper die member to urge a webwhich passes below the upper die member into contact therewith. Thepress is as- 83/152 sociated with a generally conventional blanking [51]Int. Cl. ..B26d 7/20, B26d 7/06 machine having means to step feed acontinuous web [58] Field of Search ..83/100, 99, 98, 152, to th pr ssbelow the u per die member and above a 402 reciprocable lower diemember, a conveyor adjacent the upper die member and means to remove thewaste References Cited portion of the web. Upper punches conforming tothe tops of the cup are fixed with the lower die being UNITED STATESPATENTS moved upwardly beyond them to cut the tops of the 2,366,7281/1945 Handley ..83/100 cups clear of the web, the said tops being heldto the 3,330,092 7/1967 Hill ...83/152 punches by a cup stripper.3,550,491 l2/1970 Wingard ..83/99 3,611,854 10/1971 Gilev et a1,..83/140 2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 42 7a 58 72 7o 74 201 76 14s 50 5244 b a 5 1 1 A '1 l 1 l i A 55, 98 i QL 1 l.: i J l .l7C)

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SHEET 3 [IF 5 FIG. 3.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Blanking machines having means to step feeda continuous web to a blanking press which have a fixed upper die memberand a reciprocable lower die memher, a conveyor adjacent the upper diemember, and means to remove the waste portion of the web are well knownto the art. A typical such machine is marketed by Anderson Bros.Manufacturing Company of Rockford, Illinois and is known in the trade asthe ANDER- SON FORMSEAL machine. This machine also incorporates meansfor draw forming cups from a plastic sheet, filling the cups with aliquid, and covering the cups with a covering sheet. The aspect of thismachine of particular interest here blanks out (cuts out) the filled andcovered cups in groups of four. After the press opens the cutout groupsof four cups are pushed out onto a conveyor adjacent the blanking pressby the immediately following uncut cups of the web. While it isdesirable to have each cup individually blanked out of the web, with theFORMSEAL machine in question it is not possible to do this since itresults in a chaotic jumbling of the individual cups as they are beingpushed from the press to the conveyor.

It is, therefore, the object of this invention to eliminate this problemin the FORMSEAL machine and other continuous web blanking machines byproviding for means insuring an orderly transfer of numerous individualparts such as cups, blanked out from a continuous web at a high rate ofspeed without the necessity for the use of reciprocating parts that mustpass between the upper and lower die members of the press which has theadded benefit of eliminating the danger of closing the die members onsuch reciprocating parts and thus, causing substantial damage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A conventional blanking machine having means tostep feed a continuous web to a blanking press with a fixed upper diemember and a reciprocable lower die member has the upper fixed diemember modified to have manifold means and means to exhaust airtherefrom. Downwardly extending passageways in the upper die membercommunicate with the manifold means and extend through the lower face ofthe upper die member to provide a vacuum urging the material passingunder the upper die member into contact therewith. Upper punchesconforming to the tops of the cups are fixed with the lower die beingmoved upwardly beyond them to cut the tops of the cups clear of the web,the said tops being held to the punches by a cup stripper.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a prior artblanking machine;

FIG. 1A is a plan view of a group of four blanked out cups;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of a fixed upper die member of a blankingpress modified in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a reciprocable lower die member of ablanking press;

FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken on the planes indicated by the line4-4 in-FIG. 2, and

FIG. 5 is a vertical section taken on the planes indicted by the line5-5 in FIG. 2 showing both the upper and lower die members with thelower die member being in its upper most position just after the cuttingoperation.

PRIOR ART Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art blanking machine 2 is shownin association with a continuous web 4 comprising a plastic sheet 6having cups 8 formed therein and covered by a covering sheet 10. Cups 8contain, for example, cream indicated at 12. Web 4 is advanced stepwiseby a gripper mechanism indicated at 14 which is reciprocated by a ramindicated at 16 as controlled by electric eye means indicated at 18. Ablanking press 22 has an upper die member 24 which is fixed and a lowerdie member 26 which is reciprocated by a ram indicated at 28. Press 22cuts out the cups in groups of four, one of said groups being shown at30 in FIG. 1A. When the press 22 opens and the web 4 is advanced for thenext blanking operation, each severed group 30 is pushed onto endlessbelt conveyor 32, each group having sufficient stability to avoid beingtumbled by this operation. The waste portion 34 of the web passesthrough take-up rollers 36 and 38 enroute to a waste collection station.This machine is well known to the art being widely used commercially andhence, need not be described in greater detail.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION This invention fundamentallyinvolves a modification of the blanking press of the above describedprior art blanking machine to insure an orderly transfer of individualblanked out parts to the endless conveyor and, in the particular caseillustrated above, to permit cutting out each individual cup and providefor its orderly transfer to the endless conveyor.

Referring first to FIG. 2, a fixed upper die member 42 has a supportplate 44 carrying a skeleton stripper plate 104 having shaped openings48 each for the reception of a punch member 50 to strip scrap materialfrom each punch. As best seen in FIG. 5, each punch member 50 issecurely anchored to support plate 44 by a bolt 52. Stripper plate 104is mounted for vertical movement by studs 60 having headed ends 58 whichare threadably secured to stripper plate 104 which is biased downwardlyby compression coil springs 56 which extend between plate 44 and plate104. The downward movement of plate 104 is limited by steel washer stops201 on studs 60. Referring still to FIG. 5, support plate 44 is fixedlymounted to a support indicated at by means of machine screws, one ofwhich is shown at 72.

The fixed upper die member has a bushing 74 mounted in opening 76 forthe sliding accommodation of a ram rod 78 (the ram not being shown)which is fixedly secured in a ring 80 and in a base plate 82 of lowerreciprocable .die member 84 and which carries die plate 46. As seen inFIG. 3, lower die member 84 has three additional ram rods 78 (the ramsnot being shown) which are similarly mounted and similarly received inupper die member 42. As best seen in FIG. 5, base plate 82 is secured toa platen 86 by means of machine screws, one of which is shown at 88.

A plurality of hollow cup strippers 92 are each secured by machinescrews 94 to plate 54 for vertical movement, in plates 22 and 46, (FIG.5). Each cup 92 is hollow to freely accommodate a cup 100. Plate 54 isbiased upwardly by compression coil springs 106, one

of which is shown in FIG. 5. Each compression coil spring 106 surroundsa screw 108 passing through cavity 112 in plate 82, threaded to plate 54and having a head 110 to retain one end of spring 106. Adjustable stops62 each comprise member 64 threaded through plate 54, adapted to engageplate 82, and having threaded thereto a lock nut 66.

The upper and lower die members described above differ in theapplication exemplified here in their design to cut each individual cupfree from the associated web rather than blanking out the cups in groupsof four as was done heretofor of necessity.

The upper die member 42 has been modified by adding manifolds 122 and124 (FIG. 4) which are bolted to plate 44 by bolts indicated at 126 and128 respectively. Manifold 124 comprises an entrance portion 130 and aportion 132. Manifold 122 has a slot 134 communicating with the interiorof an affixed shoe member 136 having a base plate 138 having openings140 across its entire face. Manifold 122 also communicates with manifoldpassages 142 in plate 44 which in turn also communicate with manifold124. Each punch member 50 has vacuum openings 144 (FIG. which are incommunication with passage 146 surrounding the associated bolt 52 andwhich connect to the adjacent manifold passage 142.

A shoe member 152 (FIG. 4) which has openings 154 across its face issecured to the lower face of portion 132 of manifold 124 withcommunication between the shoe 152 and manifold portion 132 beingprovided by an elongated slot 156 in portion 132. Vacuum producing means(not shown) is connected to open end 158 of manifold 124 (FIG. 2) and tothe open end 160 of manifold 122 (FIG. 2). A flexible hose 161 connectsvacuum shoe 163 to connection 165 which communicates with manifold 122(FIG. 4).

OPERATION In operation, the suction under shoe 152, the punch members 50shoe 163 and shoe 136 hold web 170 comprising cover sheet 172, plasticsheet 174 and cups 100 therein upwardly against the upper die member 42after the web is initially placed against the upper die member 42 (FIG.4). The lower die member 84 moves upwardly in the usual manner carryingplate 82 and its associated die plate 46 upwardly which in turn throughcompression coil springs 106 and bolt 108 moves plate 54 and cupstrippers 92 upwardly with plate 54 and cup strippers 92 being arrestedwhen they engage web 170 which is against stripper plate 104 and theindividual punches 50. With the cups 100 freely inside cups 92 andsprings 106 being compressed, the die plate 46 can continue to move upuntil its cutting edges 96 move past the corresponding cutting edge 98of the punches 50 to sever the individual cups from the cup supportingweb 170. As the web 170 is engaged by plate 46, the correspondingstripper plate 104 is forced upwardly against the force exerted by thesprings 56 which return the stripper plate 104 to its original positionflush with the bottom of punches 50 when the lower die member 84 iswithdrawn to strip off the waste portion of the web to the level of thecut-off portions on the cups 100. During the initial portion of thiswithdrawal, cups 92 are retained in contact with web 170 by virtue ofcompression coil springs 106 until the waste portion of web 170 is levelwith the top of the caps. After the withdrawal of lower die member 84and with the web 170 and the now severed cups still being retained as aunit by the above discussed suction, the web is moved in a conventionalmanner to the right as viewed in FIG. 4 carrying with it each of thesevered cups until the individual cups are clear of the suction of plate138 and drop downwardly from the waste portion of the web 170 onto theendless conveyor 178. FIG. 4 illustrates the transferring operation fromthe upper die member 42 to the endless conveyor 178. The retaining ofthe severed cups and the waste portion of the web 170 as a unit by thevacuum not only permits the movement of the waste portion of the web 170to move individual cups 100 to a position over the endless conveyor 178but also provides for an orderly placement of the cups 100 on theconveyor.

I claim:

1. In a blanking machine having means to feed a continuous web to ablanking press which has a fixed upper die and a reciprocable lower die,a conveyor adjacent the upper die and means to remove the waste portionof the web, the improvement comprising:

a plurality of punches fixedly mounted on the upper die,

a spring biased stripper plate surrounding said punches, spring mountedon said upper die plate and having a normal position with its lowersurface in the same plane as the lower faces of the punches,

a die plate fixedly secured to the lower die for cutting cooperationwith said punches,

a second stripper plate adapted to engage the portion of the weboverlying the punches and mounted for relative vertical movement withrespect to the die plate,

spring means connecting the second stripper plate to the lower die tobias the second stripper plate against the web as the lower die is movedupwardly and to retain it against the cut web during the initialdownward movement of the lower die,

manifold means for said upper die,

means to exhaust air from said mainfold means,

means forming downwardly extending passages in said punchescommunicating with said manifold to provide a suction across their lowerfaces,

perforate shoe means adjacent the entrance and exit ends of the upperdie member communicating with said manifold means to retain portions ofthe web to the upper die,

said latter two means retaining the waste portion and the blanked outportions of the web as a unit until removed from the press by theremoval of the waste portion of the web.

2. The machine of claim 1 in which the second stripper plate is hollowbelow each punch to accommodate a cup depending from the web.

1. In a blanking machine having meaNs to feed a continuous web to ablanking press which has a fixed upper die and a reciprocable lower die,a conveyor adjacent the upper die and means to remove the waste portionof the web, the improvement comprising: a plurality of punches fixedlymounted on the upper die, a spring biased stripper plate surroundingsaid punches, spring mounted on said upper die plate and having a normalposition with its lower surface in the same plane as the lower faces ofthe punches, a die plate fixedly secured to the lower die for cuttingcooperation with said punches, a second stripper plate adapted to engagethe portion of the web overlying the punches and mounted for relativevertical movement with respect to the die plate, spring means connectingthe second stripper plate to the lower die to bias the second stripperplate against the web as the lower die is moved upwardly and to retainit against the cut web during the initial downward movement of the lowerdie, manifold means for said upper die, means to exhaust air from saidmainfold means, means forming downwardly extending passages in saidpunches communicating with said manifold to provide a suction acrosstheir lower faces, perforate shoe means adjacent the entrance and exitends of the upper die member communicating with said manifold means toretain portions of the web to the upper die, said latter two meansretaining the waste portion and the blanked out portions of the web as aunit until removed from the press by the removal of the waste portion ofthe web.
 2. The machine of claim 1 in which the second stripper plate ishollow below each punch to accommodate a cup depending from the web.